Ayub 5:22

5:22 You will laugh at destruction and famine ¹ 

and need not ²  be afraid of the beasts of the earth.

Ayub 15:21

15:21 Terrifying sounds fill ³  his ears;

in a time of peace marauders ⁴  attack him.

Ayub 20:29

20:29 Such is the lot God allots the wicked,

and the heritage of his appointment ⁵  from God.”

Ayub 21:20

21:20 Let his own eyes see his destruction; ⁶ 

let him drink of the anger of the Almighty.

Ayub 26:5

A Better Description of God’s Greatness ⁷ 

26:5 “The dead ⁸  tremble ⁹  –

those beneath the waters

and all that live in them. ¹⁰ 

Ayub 31:12

31:12 For it is a fire that devours even to Destruction, ¹¹ 

and it would uproot ¹²  all my harvest.

[5:22]  ¹ tc The repetition of “destruction” and “famine” here has prompted some scholars to delete the whole verse. Others try to emend the text. The LXX renders them as “the unrighteous and the lawless.” But there is no difficulty in having the repetition of the words as found in the MT.

[5:22]  tn The word for “famine” is an Aramaic word found again in 30:3. The book of Job has a number of Aramaisms that are used to form an alternative parallel expression (see notes on “witness” in 16:19).

[5:22]  ² tn The negated jussive is used here to express the conviction that something cannot or should not happen (GKC 322 §109.e).

[15:21]  ³ tn The word “fill” is not in the Hebrew text, but has been supplied in the translation.

[15:21]  ⁴ tn The word שׁוֹדֵד (shoded) means “a robber; a plunderer” (see Job 12:6). With the verb bo’ the sentence means that the robber pounces on or comes against him (see GKC 373 §118.f). H. H. Rowley observes that the text does not say that he is under attack, but that the sound of fears is in his ears, i.e., that he is terrified by thoughts of this.

[20:29]  ⁵ tn For the word אִמְרוֹ (’imro) some propose reading “his appointment,” and the others, “his word.” Driver shows that “the heritage of his appointment” means “his appointed heritage” (see GKC 440 §135.n).

[21:20]  ⁶ tc This word occurs only here. The word כִּיד (kid) was connected to Arabic kaid, “fraud, trickery,” or “warfare.” The word is emended by the commentators to other ideas, such as פִּיד (pid, “[his] calamity”). Dahood and others alter it to “cup”; Wright to “weapons.” A. F. L. Beeston argues for a meaning “condemnation” for the MT form, and so makes no change in the text (Mus 67 [1954]: 315-16). If the connection to Arabic “warfare” is sustained, or if such explanations of the existing MT can be sustained, then the text need not be emended. In any case, the sense of the line is clear.

[26:5]  ⁷ sn This is the section, Job 26:5-14, that many conclude makes better sense coming from the friend. But if it is attributed to Job, then he is showing he can surpass them in his treatise of the greatness of God.

[26:5]  ⁸ tn The text has הָרְפָאִים (harÿfa’im, “the shades”), referring to the “dead,” or the elite among the dead (see Isa 14:9; 26:14; Ps 88:10 [11]). For further discussion, start with A. R. Johnson, The Vitality of the Individual, 88ff.

[26:5]  ⁹ tn The verb is a Polal from חִיל (khil) which means “to tremble.” It shows that even these spirits cannot escape the terror.

[26:5]  ¹⁰ tc Most commentators wish to lengthen the verse and make it more parallel, but nothing is gained by doing this.

[31:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “to Abaddon.”

[31:12]  ¹² tn The verb means “to root out,” but this does not fit the parallelism with fire. Wright changed two letters and the vowels in the verb to get the root צָרַף (tsaraf, “to burn”). The NRSV has “burn to the root.”